Tillerson retains top jobs at Exxon

Shareholders reject 17 measures on ballot

DALLAS — Exxon Mobil Corp. said Wednesday that shareholders voted down 17 measures on the ballot at their contentious annual meeting, including one to split the jobs of chief executive and chairman.

That proposal received just under 40 percent of the shareholders' votes, about the same as it received last year. Descendants of John D. Rockefeller, founder of Exxon Mobil's predecessor company, campaigned to have Exxon split the jobs, arguing the company is focusing too much on petroleum and not enough on cleaner-burning energy sources. Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson will keep both jobs.

After the meeting, Tillerson, who has held both positions since 2006, said continued support to change company leadership -- despite massive profits in recent quarters -- was not lost on him.

"It just re-emphasizes to me the importance of our continuing efforts to communicate better with shareholders and with the public and with policymakers," Tillerson said at a news conference.

Rockefeller family members and others have said they are concerned that Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil is too focused on short-term gains from soaring oil prices and should do more to invest in cleaner technology for the future. Some shareholders lambasted the company for not doing enough now to create far-reaching policies to reduce harmful greenhouse-gas emissions.

"It's crucial for every company to ask, 'Is it doing all it can to prepare for the future?' The Rockefeller family believes now is precisely the time for Exxon Mobil, with its strong financial performance, to take the long-term steps needed to increase shareholder value," said Peter O'Neill, a great-great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller.

"All of Exxon Mobil's acknowledged strengths are no guarantee it will remain flexible and visionary in light of the changing energy realities that lie ahead," O'Neill added. "That's why we support our company having an independent chair. We are looking forward."

This was the seventh year the CEO-chairman proposal was on the ballot.

"This is much hullabaloo over something other than what everybody should be talking about," said Lizanne Thomas, who heads the corporate-governance practice at Jones Day. "The real goal here seems to be to make sure some of that profit is devoted to green causes, but splitting the chairman and CEO doesn't do that."

Exxon executives spent a portion of the meeting defending the company's record on alternative energy and its performance.

"The past year was an outstanding year and a record for our corporation by nearly every measure," Tillerson told shareholders.

Tillerson said alternative fuels such as ethanol are not worth investing in yet because they require government subsidies and mandates to be profitable. The company is funding research into petroleum alternatives including batteries for hybrid cars.

"Twenty-five or 30 years from now, the world is still going to have to use oil and natural gas, whether people like it or not, that's a fact," Tillerson said after the meeting.

"There's already lots of capital pouring into" ethanol and other alternatives, "and we don't see those as providing a good return for our shareholders," he said.

Tillerson, 56, led the company to a $40.6 billion profit in 2007, surpassing its own previous record for annual net income by a U.S. corporation set a year earlier.

Since Tillerson became CEO and chairman in January 2006, Exxon stock has risen 60 percent, almost three times the 22 percent increase of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Exxon's biggest rival.

Also voted down by shareholders were proposals urging the company to do more to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, invest in alternative energy, and allow a shareholder advisory vote on executive compensation, a measure called "say on pay."

There was even a shareholder proposal to ban any more shareholder proposals.